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China and Colonialism

invitation only · SEMINAR · 24.10.2023 09:30 - 11:45

invitation only
Speakers

invitation only

Colonialism is a term attributed to China more often when discussing international affairs. Historically, China suffered from western colonialism for a lengthy period that left significant marks on the country economically, socially and culturally. Currently, as the geopolitical power balance has made a shift from the west towards the east, China has become an important actor globally. The country’s policies, such as the Belt and Road Initiative including its investments in key positions of infrastructure worldwide and especially in the global south raise a new set of questions: has China built a web of political dependencies through its economic investments? Could and should China’s policies be described as colonialism, and are they any different compared to western colonial activities? How should we relate and respond to China’s expansionist efforts?

The seminar is organized by Historians Without Borders (HWB) and FIIA.

Programme:

Introducing Historians without Borders and the event’s theme
Dr Erkki Tuomioja

Deconstructing “Chinese neocolonialism”: attitudes and actualities
Li Xing, Professor, Aalborg University

China’s neo-colonial presence in Europe? Reflecting from Europe’s Eastern Periphery
Dušica Ristivojević, Visiting Scholar, University of Helsinki and Research Fellow, Central European Institute of Asian Studies

Introduction to the panel discussion
Julie Yu-wen Chen, Professor, University of Helsinki

Panel discussion

Chair
Jyrki Kallio, Senior Research Fellow, FIIA

Speakers

Speakers

Erkki Tuomioja

Dr

Dr Erkki Tuomioja, Docent of Contemporary History and the longest serving Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland, is behind the initiative to establish Historians without Borders. He has acted as Chairman of the Board of Historians without Borders in Finland since the founding meeting in the summer of 2015. Tuomioja is the author of more than 20 books on history and current affairs.

Li Xing

Professor, Aalborg University

Professor Li Xing has a PhD in Development and International relations. Currently he is Professor of international relations at Aalborg University, Denmark. His other current academic responsibilities include the positions of Director, Research Centre on Development and International Relations (DIR), Aalborg University and the Editor in Chief, Journal of China and International Relations. His research interests include international political economy, international relations, emerging powers and world order. In recent years, apart from publishing numerous international and Chinese journal articles, he has edited a number of book series on the theme of the rise of China/emerging powers and the existing world order. Professor Li Xing is Honorary Professor appointed by a number of Chinese universities, and he is visiting and lecturing in China on a regular basis.

Dušica Ristivojević

Visiting Scholar, University of Helsinki and Research Fellow, Central European Institute of Asian Studies

Dr Dušica Ristivojević is senior researcher affiliated with the Central European Institute of Asian Studies, Bratislava and with the China Studies team at the University of Helsinki. She specializes in a longue durée dynamics of China’s global interactions, print and digital media, and social organizing in and out of China. She is finalizing her book manuscript on transnational links of China’s political movements and is observing China’s presence at Europe’s Eastern peripheries in the fields of dirty industry and digital technology.

Julie Yu-wen Chen

Professor, University of Helsinki

Julie Yu-wen Chen is Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Helsinki. She has held academic positions at Palacky University (Czech Republic), Nazarbayev University (Kazakhstan), University College Cork (Ireland) and Academia Sinica (Taiwan) and been a visiting scholar at La Trobe University and Universities of Virginia, Tokyo, Tübingen, Nottingham, Macau, and St. Petersburg. Part of her academic work concerns China’s political and economic initiatives in post-Soviet societies (e.g., Central Asia, Central and Eastern Europe), and Southeast Asia. Since 2023, she has been involved in the EU twinning project “The EU in the Volatile Indo-Pacific Region”, leading the preparatory research and providing supervision and counselling to junior researchers.

Chair

Jyrki Kallio

Senior Research Fellow, FIIA

Dr Jyrki Kallio is Senior Research Fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, and holds the Title of Docent (venia docendi) in International Relations and Chinese Studies at the University of Lapland. His research foci include Chinese political culture and foreign policy, and regional issues in East Asia. He has a special interest in the instrumentalization of traditional schools of thought in East Asian politics, and in addition to his research, has translated classical Chinese philosophy and prose. Previously, he served the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland as diplomat. He holds degrees of MSocSc (International Relations) and PhD (Chinese Society Studies).